Courage & living with RA Archives | Rheumatoid Arthritis Warrior

Newly Diagnosed RA and Afraid

February 26, 2020 Kelly O'Neill 5 Comments Courage & living with RA, Men with Rheumatoid Arthritis, Rheumatoid arthritis treatment

Letters from newly diagnosed RA patients As newly diagnosed RA patients find my website and write me letters, two things happen: 1) My heart is heavy for another life affected by this horrible disease. And, 2) I gather more information to add to the tens of thousands of experiences already shared with me. Of course letters from...Continue reading 5 Comments » Read more

Lessons in 8 Quotes from Doctor Strange

March 20, 2017October 5, 2019 Kelly O'Neill 4 Comments Courage & living with RA, Inspiration for living with RA, Movie review

Quotes from Doctor Strange, fitting for RD Recently I took my son Roo to see the 2016 Walt Disney movie Doctor Strange. Based on the Marvel Comics superhero, Doctor Stephen Strange is an uber-arrogant neurosurgeon who is psychologically crushed by losing the use of his hands in a horrific car accident. His journey to physical and...Continue reading 4 Comments » Read more

Position of Privilege

January 18, 2016October 5, 2019 Kelly O'Neill 11 Comments Courage & living with RA, Living with chronic illness like RA

Is optimism a position of privilege? On my long list of articles I need to finish has been a response to a comment by Alder about position of privilege in response to the Self-definition Fairy. “I keep revisiting this post. I have to say – you have to be in a position of great privilege to look...Continue reading 11 Comments » Read more

Invisible Illness and the Public: She Hit Me with Her Cane

October 23, 2013May 14, 2018 Kelly O'Neill 46 Comments Courage & living with RA, Invisible Illness, Rheumatoid Arthritis awareness

Tomorrow I’m traveling to San Diego for the ACR annual meeting. I’ll be taking a proverbial chill pill (and some real meds) and hoping all goes smoothly. For weeks we’ve done all we can to be ready! This story occurred a couple of months ago... Did anyone ever give you a dirty look for using handicapped...Continue reading 46 Comments » Read more

RA Will Not Win Blog Carnival

April 10, 2013May 14, 2018 Kelly O'Neill 23 Comments Blog carnival, Courage & living with RA

Welcome to a special blog carnival with this theme: How Do You Keep the Disease from Taking Over? How will I ever summarize all the inspiration and passion of the wonderful posts contributing to this carnival? It will make great coffee break reading for the rest of this week, so bookmark this page until you’ve read...Continue reading 23 Comments » Read more

The Pursuit of Happyness When Part of Your Life Is Called Rheumatoid Arthritis

February 1, 2013May 14, 2018 Kelly O'Neill 26 Comments Courage & living with RA, Emotions and Rheumatoid Arthritis, Movie review

Waiting to start a new treatment, the past few weeks, I’ve had a crazy idea. If the treatment works, I might “forget” how it was. So maybe I should do something I’ve never done: take an inventory. A couple years ago, a patient commented that she does a brief inventory of her joints with her...Continue reading 26 Comments » Read more

Embracing the Future, Even with Rheumatoid Arthritis

January 2, 2013May 14, 2018 Kelly O'Neill 19 Comments Courage & living with RA

Thanks to Rheumatoid Arthritis, not the future we expected None of us knows the future and it often surprises us more than we expect. Getting a diagnosis of “Rheumatoid Arthritis” usually comes with life changes we couldn’t anticipate. No one expects to feel old before it is time, having friends and relatives twice your age who...Continue reading 19 Comments » Read more